It’s an appeal directly from Kildare priest, Fr. David Conway. You might remember he successfully drilled two boreholes in the Barpello region of East Pokot, an area badly affected by drought? We have been fundraising for a third borehole in the area but we are just shy of our fundraising target.

Will you help us get it over the line?

A donation from you means we are very likely to reach our target and we will be able to tell Fr. Conway that the drilling can commence.

Bóthar has already successfully funded two boreholes in the region. One in Barpello itself and one in the Tilingwa Community.

Here’s a first-hand account from Fr. Conway about how the second drill went. There were some difficulties along the way, but the overall result was a success and the borehole is currently giving hundreds access to clean water.

Report from Fr. David Conway on the drilling of the second borehole in the Tilingwa Community.

July 27th 2017

We had promised that we would drill water for the primary school. Chemyas has 363 pupils with a total of six teachers. The school has one “pit latrine” (dry toilet) for the total population. The staff room is located under a shade tree. Classrooms are made of timber and mud walls. The seats are made of dry branches.

Up to now the children are bringing “Dam Water” for cooking and drinking in the school. The local hand dug dam is not fenced, animals are free to enter to drink, leaving their deposits. Malaria among other water-borne diseases are common every day events.

We engaged a Hydrogeologist Mr. Musimi from Machakos to do a survey. He did the survey on the last borehole and was very successful! He found water at 150mts, as it was a very small amount we ended up drilling to 220Mts.

As there was so much at risk we consulted a Mr. Kamau for a second opinion and he found water at 145Mts again a very small amount. Now we had two drills, we went with the first and called back Mr. Musimi for a confirmation, both drills after 365Mts were dry. The Hydrogeologist looks at the “rock formation” and gives his conclusion based on what he finds. Even a small quantity of water found, will show up positive. The Hydrogeologist is independent of the Drilling Rig company. The Driller goes on the report of the Hydrogeologist and drills as the survey suggests and has to be paid for same.

A month later we employed a new Hydrogeologist who used in addition a GPS along with his own equipment. He found water in the remote area of Tilingwa, about 70KMS from Chemyas/Barpello at 150 Mts. We drilled 150 Mts and got a good supply of water.

Up to now, the community in times of drought carried water from the Kerio River some 10 Kms away but this activity had to end because of insecurity, making the Bóthar Borehole a “God Send”.

Tilingwa has a community of 180 households with a population of 1,100 people who are served with water on a daily basis from the new borehole.

The borehole has been a big success and is serving this remote community. There has been a significant decrease in water-borne diseases.

As you can see the need is great. But the results are equally as great.

We are just over €12,000 shy to get the project completed.

Help us deliver this third borehole to the people of Silale Ward.

Whatever you can afford to give - €20, €50, €100 - whatever it is - will make a difference. When you put all the donations together, then €12,000 doesn’t seem so far away...